Urban design

Architects and builders award the United Kingdom

Architecture and builders associations give prize for best pavilion to the United Kingdom. Special mentions for Brazil, Chile, Morocco. And also for the thematic Clusters

The jury had no doubts about who should win the prize in the international competition “The architecture of the Expo Milano 2015 pavilions”: the decision was in fact unanimous between InArch, Ance, Cnappc, Federcostruzioni and Oice, and the award went to the UK pavilion, designed by the artist Wolfgang Buttress (Video), who created an installation inspired by the role of beehives in the ecosystem (its name is actually the “Hive”).

“The UK pavilion is a fervent hymn to nature conservation in which art, landscape, architecture and design are woven together. It is a piece that was designed to make us dream and hope for a better world”, affirmed the president of the jury, Gabriele Del Mese, as he read a statement about the awarding of the prize.

“It is among those which best interpreted the theme of Expo and it conveys the relationship between man and nature by reproducing, even down to the sound effects, a beehive”, added the founder of Arup Italia. “In other words it is a fine example of the difficulties, experienced in a complex society that has lost its way like the one we live in today, of creating integrated architecture within a limited budget and without loosing sight of the central theme. Here art and architecture are fused together to give life to a truly temporary piece that looks simple, can be disassembled and moved elsewhere, and is capable of attracting visitors both day and night thanks to its light show.”

The jury also wanted to recognise Buttress’ project idea (which was built by Stage One and Rise) because it was the result of a multi-disciplinary collective effort, and the winner of an international contest sponsored by the UK government to choose not just a project but a team team made up of people from different professional fields. In fact, listed alongside the British artist are Bdp studio, the UK arm of Slow Food, the fashion designer Paul Smith and the music experts Nick Dewey and Carl Gosling. Another fundamental figure in the design team was Martin Bencsik, a physicist from Nottingham Trent University’s School of Science and Technology, an expert in monitoring beehives.

There were also three special mentions for the pavilions of Brazil, Chile and Morocco for the quality of their architecture, their building clarity, their recognizable and identifiable volumes, their reversibility and their use of traditional materials. There was an hors concours mention for the thematic Clusters, which were recognise by the president of the jury as “one of the most successful ideas at Expo”.

The Brazilian pavilion, special mention

The Chilean pavilion, special mention

The Moroccan pavilion, special mention

Thematic Clusters, which were given a special mention

Now, after the awarding of the prize by InArch and the other professional and entrepreneurial organisations from the so-called “construction chain of production”, we are just waiting for the traditional verdict by the Bureau International des Expositions, which will be announced on 30 October, the day before the closing of the international event.

Founded in 1961 by Piera Peroni Abitare magazine has crossed the history of costume, architecture and design, international, following in its pages the evolution of our ways of life and how we inhabit places